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With America’s semiquincentennial set to take place over the weekend, people all over the country are prepping their grills and parade floats; but there’s one other tradition that has authorities issuing warnings.

Fourth of July fireworks are involved in approximately 75% of the annual 15,000 firework-related emergency room visits every year. Data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission shows that anywhere between eight and 15 people die in firework-related accidents every year. The most common type of injury from household pyrotechnics is burns; however, these accidents can also result in amputations, blast trauma, and severe eye injuries. For young children and toddlers, the leading injury type is a burn from sparklers.

In 2025, at least 15 people died as the result of a firework accident, the agency reported. Many of these incidents involved misuse of the device, misfires and/or malfunctions. Those aged 15 to 24 years old accounted for the majority of the injured.

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At least two people were attacked by alligators in as many days in Central Florida with one Orlando woman suffering fatal wounds, marking three such attacks in the state in the last week.

A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission official told reporters with NBC News that he could not give a reason for the Sunday, June 21, fatal attack but did point out that it is the end of the animals’ mating season and that they are extremely territorial around this time of year. “Courtship” for alligators begins in early April, according to the FWC official website, with mating occurring in May or June.

At this time of year, female alligators will build nests comprised of soil, debris, and vegetation where they will deposit an average of 32 to 46 eggs. This occurs in late June or early July. Hatching typically occurs anywhere between 63 and 68 days later, or from mid-August through early September.

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Videos of a 13-year-old boy allegedly climbing out of a ride at Disneyland and taking the 50-foot plunge have gone viral on the internet for their shock-value.

The boy was taken to the hospital after climbing from a log boat on Sunday at Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, formerly known as Splash Mountain. Thankfully, he did not suffer any serious injuries, according to local media. The boy can be seen outside of the log boat just before the famous drop where he takes a frightening fall.  The ride was immediately stopped.

The ride was immediately stopped and was allegedly closed for the remainder of the day while an investigation took place.

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Leesfield & Partners’ Founder and Managing Partner, Ira Leesfield, sat down with Fox 35 Orlando’s Garrett Wymer to discuss Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to veto Senate Bill 382, a bipartisan e-bike safety bill.

“This is chaos,” Mr. Leesfield said. “If you go into any municipality on a Friday night, you’ll see people doing wheelies, weaving in and out [of traffic]. And neither the governor, no you, nor I … can tell an e-bike operator where to operate his or her e-bike. What is safe?”

If it had been passed, SB 382 would have created a 10 mph speed limit for e-bike riders when within 50 feet of a pedestrian on sidewalks and shared paths and mandate audible signals when passing these individuals. Additionally, the bill outlined requirements for the creation of a task force to monitor crash statistics and data collected by police throughout the state to make future recommendations.

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A jet ski collision near the Miami Marine Stadium on Thursday, June 25, resulted in at least two hospitalizations, officials said.

The personal watercraft (PWC) incident occurred off the Rickenbacker Causeway, according to CBS News reporting. There were allegedly two men on each of the PWC’s, which were traveling in the waters north of the Rickenbacker Causeway when they crashed.

At least two men, described by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials as being in their 40s, were taken to the Ryder Trauma Center. The men were said to be in “serious but stable” condition and were taken to the hospital as a precaution, CBS News reported.

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About a decade after a near-fatal ATV accident on their family’s property, Jamie Lynn Spears and her daughter are opening up about the teen’s recovery.

Maddie Watson, now 18, was just 8 years old when she was riding around her family’s property in Louisiana on an ATV around their pond. At one point, she reportedly fell in while still on the vehicle, according to reporting from national media. The mother and daughter made headlines this week following a sit-down interview with People Magazine.

“My father-in-law, my mother-in-law, me and my husband, we ran to jump in to save her and you kind of — in that moment you think, ‘This is not real. She’s going to pop up, this isn’t real,’” explained Spears, a former child star and younger sister to early 2000s icon and singer Britney Spears.

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At least five people were taken to the hospital Saturday after strong winds took down a cabana at the Daer Nightclub at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, according to reporting from ABC News.

The incident occurred around 7 p.m. when a “gazebo-like” structure was suddenly blown into the crowd by the wind, falling on top of or near five people. That portion of the nightclub was allegedly closed while emergency responders addressed injuries.

At the time, the area was under a significant weather advisory with forecasters warning of wind gusts between 40 and 50 mph, according to reporting from The Miami Herald. Historical data published by the National Weather Service shows 25 mph northwest winds with gusts of about 40 mph just before the incident.

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Following a multi-car pileup on the highway that left her hospitalized and unsure if she would ever walk again, J.D. is still anxious to get back on the highway.

What was meant to be a long car ride back home, recounting memories made during a family trip, quickly turned into a traumatic experience she would never forget.

Suddenly, her world went from chatting with her little brother from the front passenger seat to the terrifying sounds of scraping metal. Her family’s rental car, which was being driven by her mother, was slammed from behind by a tractor-trailer weighing thousands of pounds. The result was a multi-car crash that changed her life forever.

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Authorities have identified a person who disappeared while on a charter boat trip over the weekend in Miami, according to reporting from local media.

The man, identified Tuesday as 23-year-old Akin Liverpool, was reportedly on a 39-foot charter boat on Friday for a planned trip from Hobie Beach to the Miami River through Biscayne Bay. During the trip, another passenger noticed that Liverpool was missing from the boat.

Officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission told reporters that the captain notified authorities of Liverpool’s disappearance. On Sunday, around 11 a.m. passing boaters found a body, later identified by police as Liverpool, in the water south of Brickell Key, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a statement.

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Leesfield & Partners’ Founder and Managing Partner, Ira Leesfield, has admonished the lack of regulations related to the use of micromobility devices since at least 2019.

Nearly a decade later, and Florida lawmakers have crafted much-needed regulations and an exploratory task force to track crashes and other incidents that will go into effect on July 1 if signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“It’s an unregulated problem, which is only getting exponentially worse, really exponentially worse,” Mr. Leesfield told ABC 7’s Juliana Narvaez.

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